Gemius report: CEE vs. global mobile trends – keeping up not copycatting

Cristina Blanaru Digital & Media, Marketing, Mobile, Studies

Mobile web has arrived to CEE, with Internet users of Central and Eastern Europe browsing websites on their mobile devices with growing enthusiasm, according to “Do You CEE?” report from Gemius.

According to the report, in June, every 17th page view in the region was made via a mobile phone or tablet. The Apple’s position as the producer of the most popular devices remains strong, but other brands do not lag behind.

Mobile traffic in CEE grows at an impressive rate. Only a few months ago, in December 2011, approximately 4% of all page views monitored by Gemius web analytics in the region originated from mobile devices. This number grew by more than a half within 6 months, mostly due to bigger competition on the providers’ market, as well as an increase in the quality and speed of mobile data transfer.

Apple, the world’s leading manufacturer, has been steadily building its position in CEE. In June 2012, almost 40% of all mobile page views on the sites measured by Gemius came from Apple smartphones or tablets. Its products are especially popular in the Baltic states, which are very open to technological novelties. Estonia is a case in point: half of all mobile page views generated in the country are made with apple-branded products. 

Figure 1. The most popular mobile devices producers in CEE - Source: Gemius, gemiusTraffic, June 2012. Data aggregated for 14 CEE markets: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine.

Apple is not a first choice brand for all countries of the region. An interesting situation may be observed in Belarus and Ukraine, which as very young CEE internet markets, often display unique online trends adoption patterns. In these two countries, Nokia is number 1 among the most popular producers. Moreover, in Belarus Apple takes the second position, but with only a slight advantage (about 1pp of share of mobile page views) over the third-ranked Huawei. Almost 17% of all mobile page views generated on the Belarusian market is made from devices of this Chinese producer. It is an impressive result when compared to CEE average share of mobile page views generated from Huawei devices, which amounts to 2.8%.

Nokia, which has been the world’s leading mobile phone maker for more than a decade, has already lost its dominant role on world’s markets to Samsung. Its position in the CEE region is also diminishing. After this Finish potentate lost 13pp of its share in mobile page views made in all CEE countries in the year 2011, at the beginning of 2012 it was surpassed by Samsung and came third among the most popular mobile producers in the region. Samsung noted the fastest increase in the percentage of mobile page views over the course of the last year (January 2011 – December 2011). According to gemiusTraffic for June 2012, over 1/5 of all mobile page views generated in CEE came from Samsung devices, which is over 4pp more when compared to the Nokia’s result for the same time period. The South Korean producer is particularly popular in such countries as Slovenia, Hungary or Lithuania, winning over 25% of mobile page views generated from its devices.

HTC and Sony Ericsson are other brands popular in the region. HTC mobile devices are very intensively used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where their share in mobile page views on the market amounted to 10.4% and 13.2% respectively (according to gemiusTraffic for June 2012). On the other hand, smartphones and tablets offered by Sony Ericsson are eagerly used in Hungary (11.1%), Poland (13.4%) or Slovakia (11.3%).

When it comes to the most often used mobile devices models, Apple’s flagship products – iPad and iPhone – dominate the CEE market. While iPad is extremely popular in Estonia, Russia and Slovenia (over 30% of mobile page views generated in each of these countries), iPhone particularly attracts users from Croatia (32%). The third most popular mobile device in the region is Samsung GT-i9100 (Galaxy S II). However, with just about 3.5% of mobile page views generated on average in the region, it stays far behind the market leader: iPad (with over 20pp loss in the share of mobile page views). One may forecast that such result will help Apple keep the distance to its main competitor for some time, at least in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Figure 2. The most popular models of mobile devices in CEE - Source: Gemius, gemiusTraffic, June 2012. Data aggregated for 14 CEE markets: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine.

“Do You CEE?” report 2011, prepared by Gemius in cooperation with IAB Europe, is available for download online.

Gemius is an international research agency, the leader and forerunner in the field of research of the internet and on the internet in Europe and in the Middle East. Originating in Poland, Gemius has expanded across the EMEA region and is now currently operating on thirty markets. The company provides advanced online measurement technology, giving media planners highly credible results (gemiusAudience). It also offers professional research solutions, analytical and advisory services, from site-centric and user-centric studies to technologically-advanced tools for studying internet user behaviour on chosen websites (gemiusTraffic), internet user socio-demographic profiles (gemiusProfile), the quality of WWW page usage (gemiusUsability) and the effectiveness of internet advertising campaigns (gemiusEffect). Gemius also conducts research related to subjects submitted by customers (gemiusAdHoc). Apart from the above-mentioned research services, Gemius offers studies on the behaviour of users who view online multimedia content (gemiusStream) and a research tool for immediate measurement and presentation of all clicks made by internet users on a website (gemiusHeatMap).